The Naxos John Dowland Complete Lute Music set is the culmination
of a recording project by the lutenist Nigel North. The four
discs have already appeared individually
but are now available, each in its original packaging but grouped together in
a card slip-case. Each disc is structured as a recital programme and each stands
up well as an individual contribution to the composer’s discography. Together,
they offer the advantage of a comprehensive survey and also have sufficient diversity
and musical interest that on completing one, the listener’s natural inclination
is to turn to the slip-case to find the next instalment.

One surprise for me of this total immersion approach was discovering how much
up-beat music Dowland wrote. His pavans and other melancholic numbers richly
deserve their popularity, but marches, jigs and galliards make up a similar proportion
of his work. These are equally satisfying, the composer’s deep humanity
coming through without any need for melancholic pathos. Nigel North cleverly
constructs his programmes around the themes and moods of the music, while always
maintaining a recitalist’s sense of diversity. So, for example, volume
2 is entitled ‘Dowland’s Tears’, and includes most of his well-known
melancholic numbers, concluding with the famous Semper Dowland Semper Dolens.
But the pavans, funerals and adieus are interspersed with a handful of galliards,
each of which balances the mournful tone without breaking the mood.

North performs with impressive clarity, the surety and adroitness of his tone
constant across the four discs. An enviable combination of rigour and suppleness
characterises his playing. He arpeggiates with evenness and regularity, never
tempted to manipulate the chords for melodic gain. His rendition of Semper
Dowland Semper Dolens is a case in point, evenly strummed throughout, allowing
the music’s simple melodic line to make its point without any extraneous
decoration or rubato. On the other hand, his melodies and introductory figures
often breathe with a sense of almost vocal lyricism. So, for example, Mrs.
Vaux’s Galliard, opens with a very gentle accelerando through the opening
few chords, deftly approaching, and then immediately establishing, the tempo
of the melody. A lively ornamentation is occasionally employed, as in The
King of Denmark’s Galliard, which is spiced with lively, if disciplined,
mordant figures. He is not afraid to explore extremes of tempo. His reading of Captain
Digorie Piper’s Galliard, for example, is brisk, while Mr. Dowland’s
Midnight is slower than you will hear elsewhere. In both cases, the clarity
of the tone and the lyricism of the melodic line are more than sufficient to
secure the integrity and musicality of the result.

The performances were given on 8, 9 and 10 course instruments with pitches ranging
from A=392hz to 440hz. Even at the lower end of this pitch spectrum, the sound
is clear and bright, a testament perhaps to the luthier’s art. Most of
the instruments were made in the last ten years. The recording venue was the
church of St John Chrysostom, Newmarket, Ontario, and the generous acoustic makes
for a particularly satisfying sound profile. A halo of resonance surrounds the
lute but, more importantly, does not interfere with the clarity of the attack
or the evenness of the decay.

Dowland’s lute music has made few appearances on CD in recent years, making
this well played, well programmed and well recorded set all the more valuable.
The high standard of the recorded sound suggests that modern technology may be
of future benefit to lutenists, in that the notoriously soft tone of their instrument
makes an ideal subject for sound recording when reproduced with this level of
care. The sound of the player’s fingers moving along the neck can often
be heard. For those put off by such things, I would stress that it is usually
only just above the level of audibility. For me, the sound only adds to the verisimilitude
and intimacy of the listening experience. Experienced Dowland collectors are
going to want to seek this recording out, although most will have probably already
bought the discs individually. Newcomers to the composer’s work could find
no better place to start than with Nigel North’s recordings, and they will
have the added advantage of being able to listen to over four hours of Dowland’s
elegant, courtly strains without any fear of having the experience ruined by
Sting
wailing away over the top (see review).
Gavin Dixonsee also review by Jonathan
Woolf(Bargain of the Month November 2009)

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